One man, from London, had allegedly glued his hands together to prevent him being moved from the premises, which the protest group claimed made engines for drones being used by Israel in the Gaza conflict. He was charged earlier in the day.

Chief Insp Jane Hewett said: “Our duty is to provide fair and balanced policing - we’re here to keep the peace and to uphold the law, but when the law is broken we will take appropriate action.

“Since the protest began highly-trained police negotiators have been in regular conversation with the protesters and have explained on numerous occasions that their actions will result in their arrest for aggravated trespass. We have also continuously provided the protesters with the opportunity to safely and peacefully hand themselves to police officers.

“We are very much aware of the disruption the actions of the protesters has had on the local community and businesses in the area and we have had to carefully balance our role in facilitating peaceful protest against any unlawful impact on the wider community.

“We developed a detailed plan to arrest the protesters in order to resolve the incident and allow the local community return to a state of normality.

“We can reassure the wider community whilst our overriding concern was safety we also wanted to resolve the incident as soon as possible.

“Investigative work will begin to establish how the protesters came to be on the roof. We will now deal with any offences committed as required."

The action group have now announced a demonstration outside Stafford Police Statio, where the demonstrators are being questioned.